I love buying books more than reading them

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I love buying books. In fact, I think I love buying books more than I love reading them.

This has led to a problem: an ever-growing backlog of books waiting to be read.

For years, the stack of unread books on my nightstand grew to the point where it was becoming a genuine physical danger. Eventually, I switched to e-books, which solved the problem of collapsing towers of paperbacks, but introduced another problem.

What should I read next?

I'd hear about an interesting book, make a mental note to read it, and then promptly forget all about it. By the time I finished whatever I was reading, I'd have no idea what I'd previously been excited about.

This is actually one of the reasons I added the ability to save lists to Diende.

Now, whenever I hear about a book that sounds interesting, I add it to my To Read Next list. Problem solved. Well, sort of.

That list now contains over 30 books. And some of them… I'm not even sure what I was thinking when I added them.

The top six

This is where Diende comes in.

Rather than trying to choose from all 30-plus books, I focus on just six.

I like to mix up my reading, so my top six will usually contain a mixture of non-fiction, fantasy, science fiction and crime. This way, I'm not just reading the same kind of book over and over again.

When I finish a book, I open Diende, select my reading list and ask it to pick from the top six.

That's it. My next book is chosen.

Of course, I still have to decide which six books make the cut. But that's the fun part. I get to rediscover that gem of a book I vaguely remember hearing about on a podcast months ago.

And there's something quite satisfying about leaving that final decision to chance.

My current top six

At the time of writing, these are the six books (or series) competing to be my next read:

It's a fairly eclectic mix, from science fiction and fantasy to horror and dystopian fiction.

I've already decided that I'd be happy reading any of these. That's the important bit. I'm not asking Diende to choose between books I want to read and books I don't. I've already made that decision.

I'm just leaving the final choice to chance.

Making decisions without overthinking them

One of the things I've learned from using Diende is that sometimes the hardest part of making a decision isn't choosing between good and bad options. It's choosing between several perfectly good options.

I want to read all six of those books. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in my top six.

So why spend ages agonising over which one to start?

I let Diende decide, start reading, and get on with enjoying the book.

And it's not just books. I use exactly the same approach when deciding what TV show to watch next. With so many streaming services and so much choice, sometimes it's easier to let Diende make the decision than spend half the evening scrolling through Netflix.

The point isn't to avoid making decisions entirely. It's to narrow things down to options you're happy with, then let chance do the rest.

Now, if only I could stop buying more books than I can possibly read.

Got your own backlog? Try Diende for yourself and let it pick what's next.